Rosetta’s Philae Lander in Permanent Sleep

ESA’s Philae lander, the first spacecraft to successfully soft-land on the surface of a comet and former piggyback partner to Rosetta , has not been in communication since July of 2015 and, with 67P now six months past perihelion and heading deeper out into the Solar System, it’s not likely it will ever be heard from again. On Nov. 12, 2014, after over ten years traveling across the Solar System, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft successfully sent the Philae lander down onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, at the time located 316 million miles (508 million km) from Earth.While Philae’s mission was deemed a success—80% of its primary science data were returned—its historic landing didn’t go without a few hitches